A man has been jailed for nine years for killing a young father-of-one inside a nightclub in Shannon, Co. Clare in March 2018.
Following a retrial, 24-year-old Nathan O'Neill, from Dooradoyle in Limerick, was acquitted of murdering Jamie Higgins, but found guilty of his manslaughter.
The incident happened in the early hours of the 18th of March 2018.
Following an altercation at the bar, Nathan O’Neill left the Shannon Knights nightclub and returned an hour later, armed with a knife.
More words were exchanged between him and Jamie Higgins, and during a fight, which spilled out into the dancefloor area, O’Neill stabbed him five times.
The whole incident lasted less than twenty seconds.
O’Neill ran off but was found soon afterwards hiding under a bush in a nearby field.
At his sentence hearing last month, Jamie Higgin’s mother, Sharon, said their family had been destroyed by what happened.
Jamie’s partner, Jade McNamara, also said her life would never be the same again.
The fact that O’Neill had left and returned with the knife was a serious aggravating factor in the case. The judge considered a 14-year sentence but after taking mitigation into account, he jailed him for nine years.
